Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, has confirmed that 74,000 of the 98,000 mortgage holders in arrears of more than 90 days at the end of June were not yet in an arrangement. Targets have been missed all over the place. More worrying, of the 35,000 proposed resolutions offered by banks to the end of June, 62% referred to surrender or repossession of property. The Taoiseach has set his face against any independent mortgage arrears resolution office or household debt resolution office, which we proposed over two years ago. All the evidence points to the error of the Taoiseach's ways. He seems to think that lenders will ultimately do what is in the best interests of the person in arrears, but I do not share the Taoiseach's view. The anecdotal evidence is that the banks, and lenders generally, are moving more towards repossession and surrender of property as the first resort rather than the last. The Cabinet sub-committee on mortgage arrears has got it fundamentally wrong in terms of its overall strategy. It has not met often enough. Does the sub-committee think that is satisfactory? Is the Taoiseach happy with that high level of reference to repossessions and surrender of property as the first resort?

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